About

Tender Alchemy is the first exhibition to present the works of Beth Ames Swartz and Julianne Swartz—mother and daughter artists whose distinct practices are united by a shared devotion to transformation, healing, and the invisible forces that shape human experience. Though their materials and methods differ, both artists engage in a kind of alchemy: a transmutation of matter, energy, and emotion into forms of quiet power and profound presence.

For more than sixty years, Beth Ames Swartz (b. 1936) has devoted her practice to spiritual inquiry and personal evolution, delving into esoteric wisdom traditions and spiritual cosmologies. Her layered, luminous paintings act as meditative spaces—vessels for reconciliation, transformation, and the poetic resolution of brokenness. Both deeply personal and interpretive, her practice reveals an enduring quest for enlightenment through symbolic and often ritualistic mark-making.

Julianne Swartz (b. 1967) synthesizes sound, light, energy, and other matter into participatory experiences that are both intimate and expansive. Her sculpture and site-specific installations invite tactile, auditory, and affective engagement, often incorporating ephemeral or immaterial elements to make subtle energies and emotional frequencies physically felt. Less about representation than presence, her work attunes viewers to unseen forces and suggests alternate modes of embodiment and empathy. 

Tender Alchemy premieres the first collaboration between mother and daughter with a restaging of A Moving Point of Balance, Beth’s landmark 1985 multisensory installation, now accompanied by a newly composed sound work from Julianne in response to her mother’s piece—a foundational influence on Julianne’s own practice. Originally shown at eleven institutions across the United States and Canada between 1985 and 1988, A Moving Point of Balance transforms visitors into participants whose energy centers are activated within seven color light baths, each corresponding to a large-scale painting visualizing the Hindu chakra system. Informed by Beth’s pilgrimages to sacred sites in the U.S. Southwest and France, the installation offers a contemplative environment that links inner and outer landscapes. 

The exhibition showcases fireworks and paintings by Beth Ames Swartz, spanning more than fifty years of her abstract interpretations of wisdom traditions and universal spiritual themes. This retrospective provides a deep exploration of Beth’s lifelong commitment to studying and expressing esoteric and holistic philosophies. Her work draws from diverse sources, including the chakra system of Hinduism, as practiced in kundalini yoga; Jewish mysticism found in the Kabbalah; shen qi from the qigong medical tradition; Christianity, as reflected in the poetry of T.S. Eliot; and Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist philosophies, as conveyed through the poetry of Du Fu, Li Bai, and Wang Wei. More recently, her art has also begun to investigate the spiritual dimensions of quantum theory.

Julianne Swartz presents new and recent sculptures made from materials like clay, copper, glass, and sound, forming finely tuned, multisensory instruments. Balancing opposites—soft and hard, still and kinetic—they are designed to produce physical and psychological effects. Drawing on her studies in vibrational healing and neural entrainment, Julianne calibrates each piece to emit sound and light frequencies that promote meditative brain states. Some works operate just above perception, subtly tuning visitors to the quiet forces around them. As “soft instruments,” they create an immersive environment for presence, reflection, and restoration.

Together, their work forms a cross-generational dialogue, grounded in tenderness, perception, and transformation. While their methods differ, their intentions echo across time and space, offering complementary visions of how art can serve as a bridge between worlds. 

Organized by Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art and curated by Lauren R. O’Connell, curator of contemporary art. Support provided by Signature Sponsors Richard Corton, Nancy and Michael Gifford, and Diane and Gary Tooker, and Supporting Sponsors Sally and Richard Lehmann, Jane and Mal Jozoff, and an anonymous donor.